Allow me to turn your attention to one of the hottest projects going on over at Kickstarter right now. It’s Pressy, an accessory that fits itself snugly into your device’s 3.5mm headset jack. It’s not a pair of headphones or external speakers, though — it’s a button. A button that you press. Hence, Pressy. And this button can be configured to do anything you want it to do.

Pressy will allow you to activate/initiate nearly any task on your phone simply by pressing the button. For instance, you could click once to turn the flashlight on, and click again to turn it back off. Its whole purpose is to make the so-called “simple” processes you need everyday even more simpler. The button interfaces with a free Android app that will allow you to configure Pressy any way you like.

And it’s not just limited to one action. You can set one short press to trigger one action, shot long press to trigger another action, and a quick double tap to trigger a third action, and so on. Pressy will have default configurations for these different scenarios, but — as we mentioned before — the app will let you change it to whatever you want. The photo above gives us a list of examples of things we can configure Pressy to do.

Pressy will be completely open for developers to tap into. In fact, there isn’t even a convoluted SDK to deal with — the folks at Pressy provide a quick and easy Q&A to follow that will allow you to implement Pressy into your own apps.

So what do you have to do to own one of your own? You can currently get a Pressy for as little as $17 for a basic model. $20 will let you choose between red, white or blue or it will let you get a black Pressy with a keychain holster. $25 will let you get a different color + a keychain in that same color.

$45 nets you two Pressy buttons in any colors you want with the keychains to match, or a gold-coated Pressey and keychain combo. A $1,000 pledge will net you, as a developer, custom API implementation and the Awesome Pressy (alternate color Pressy with keychain), though we imagine this particular option won’t be nearly as popular as the others.

The excitement for Pressy is already too much to bear,with the project raising more than double its initial goal of $40,000 in just one day. The guys behind it are targeting March 2014 for a completion window, so it shouldn’t take long to see the fruits of the community’s collective efforts once the campaign is funded (which should take place October 14th). Be sure to head to Kickstarter and drop some cash if you’re interested.

Phones have gotten to the point where they do everything we need them to very reliably.

Hardware expandability is the next wave, and like many others apparently, I can’t wait!

rudyy

Will have to wait until they hit the market. I don’t do Amazon.

guitarist5122

why not? I regularly make purchases on Amazon and have had zero problems. On the rare occasion I would have a possible problem, their customer support is quick to do whatever they need to, to make me happy.

DavidVarghese

Functionality seems great, but I got a feeling I’m gonna lose it within 24 hours.

Tom Christopher

keychain

SkythekidRS

Hi

Ayelen Olmedo

Hi =)

dandybuck

Me gusta tu cara. Cuantos años tienes?

Angel De La Riva

Smooth.

CerealFTW

guárdelo en sus pantalones

Guest

Hola =) no entiendo nada esto

Ayelen Olmedo

Hola . no entiendo nada esto JAJAJA.

vinnyjr

Great idea. I want a few of them.

SkythekidRS

Budder?

http://twitter.com/gamercore Chris Chavez

Said I’d never back another product on Kickstarter ever again…….. then I backed this. >.<

Sucks it's not scheduled to release until March of 2014. :/

Roaduardo

If I’m not asked to liquidate all my possessions to help back a project, I’ll toss in a few bucks if it’s a really promising product. This one looks lovely.

KOLIO

OUYA backer?

yankeesusa

Is there any chance with more funds they will release earlier?

Pressy

We, at Pressy, are trying hard to release the product earlier than March – we will do our best!

ITCanWork

I’m sure Samsung or HTC will copy this by adding a configurable physical button on their phones 12-18 months from now. (That’s how long it takes to create a phone apparently from concept to production)

The only thing that is bothering me is the picture above where it is installed in the HTC ONE.. The question is, now how can u ever remove that? There seem to be nothing that you can hold on to pull it out.

Lou_Sasshole

Yeah that’s something to consider.

Tony Lai

They actually showed in the video that it was removed and plug in a regular headphone instead… seems okay.

Lou_Sasshole

I couldn’t watch the vid before, but yeah it looks pretty good.

sullivan7221

“the only thing that is bothering me is”…well…. the fact that the image is odd as all hell!! looking at the front of EVERY single HTC One I’ve looked at, the power button is on the left and the headset jack is on the right. so where did this strange variant come from?? Aside from that…. excellent idea and I I tend to get one. I just switched from the Eco 4G LTE and miss my dedicated camera button. this aught to ease the pain a bit. :)

David Gray

I totally noticed that as well!!! My brother just got an HTC One so I’ve been playing with it a lot and the power button/RF blaster is on the left top of the phone for sure!!!

CerealFTW

they might have taken a pic of the phone and had it mirrored to face the other way for some odd reason

shonangreg

It looks like even the prototype has a head, like a nail, which you can grab with your fingernails. I’d guess only women with long, delicate fingernails would have a problem with this kind of “handle”.

Tony Lai

This is quite brilliant.. i think they will get rich very soon if patented… oh.. apple is working on one already…

Del373

This is a great idea. It’s functional as a control extension, and also keeps dust n’ things from getting into the 3.5mm port.

yankeesusa

I never thought about it that way. Keep dust out… great point.

Roaduardo

Anyone else with dyslexia saw a different word from ‘Pressy’?

lolwut

just you

Roaduardo

:(

John Andrew Stuart

I don’t think Dyslexia is the correct word my friend…

Roaduardo

Why?

https://plus.google.com/102862831744598656090/about Wesley

I don’t want the button but I do want an app that can work like this. I hated doing it but I got the iPhone 5 earbuds to use with my Galaxy Nexus because they really are designed so well for letting me hear everything going on around me while sitting comfortably in my ears all day. I can answer the phone and start and stop my music with them but I can’t use the volume buttons for anything. It would be great to be able to use the +/- buttons to go back and forth between songs in my queue.

Christopher Cole

You can find the OEM earphones that come with the Galaxy S3 on Amazon for $5 and they do the same thing and control the volume.

https://plus.google.com/102862831744598656090/about Wesley

Thanks for the tip. I looked them up. It looks like they have the rubber/plastic orbs that push into the ear canal. I hate those things because they plug the ear and I can’t hear things around me very well. I have limited use of my hands so pulling them out all the time is not too easy. Otherwise, they would have been a really great deal for me.

Christopher Cole

Got it. Yeah, it’s tricky finding the right pair.

Patruns

Not unless you are using a Samsung phone with the Touch Wiz interface. Try using them on a Samsung Google Nexus and the buttons do not function.

ari_free

Everyone got rid of their physical buttons so now we have to spend 17 bucks to get another one back?

Tim Kirkpatrick

A button that you can program to do pretty much whatever you want without having to even turn the screen on? Hell yeah! sign me up! Just because “they” think buttonless is the way to go, doesn’t mean everybody else agrees.

ITCanWork

I agree, this is brilliant. You can’t compare to a home screen button, you’re using a 5 inch touchscreen, what the hell do u need a physical button at the bottom for (although some people complain they hit it when typing on keyboard, ive never experienced that ever). But a physical button you can configure for many functions when your screen is off, thats amazing. But, is this gonna be a security issue by bypassing the lockscreen?

guitarist5122

cool idea, but not for $17. call me cheap, but for the tiny bit of added functionality, it would only tempt me if it was in the $5-10 range. probably only cost like a buck to make. the real work will be writing the app

Tim Kirkpatrick

Ok. You’re cheap.

Dan

Cool idea, but I use my headphones everyday when I go to the gym, I’d end up losing this within the first week.

yankeesusa

That is understandable, but the Motorola s11 bluetooth headphones would most likely solve this problem, at least for me. I can’t stand using wired headphones on my phone even though they may sound better. The s11 sound pretty good. I’m still rocking the old s9 and I still don’t mind them.

I use these every day and love everything about them. My headphone jack is a wasted dust collector at this point.

Steven Skwarkowski

Thats what the keychain holder is for?!

Dan

Good point, but I bet I’d still find a way to lose it even then.

Daniel

Will definitely back this, I’ve been wanting a phone with an external camera button for ages!

phatmanXXL [16,000+ posts]

Really cool

Tim Kirkpatrick

I backed this. I’m actually pretty excited about it. I hope it works as well as they promise…

David Gray

I’m a backer and glad to be one BUT I am still very curious as to how our smartphones are going to work with something jammed in our headphone jacks at all times? I know theres a companion app so hopefully there’s something written into the code but as we all know when you have something in your headphone jack the phone automatically routes all you sound to that device whether it be a speaker or a set of headphones so with this Pressy inserted will my phone ring or play music out the normal speaker…we will see.

ITCanWork

Hardware Vendors (Samsung, HTC, etc) take note. People want a physical button or two that they can configure on their own.

dgarra

I’d like a dedicated optional button on the side of the phone, opposite of the volume rocker. I hate the “Home” button on the Samsung phones, but anywhere else would be decent.

simpleas

oh no.. we want software keys wahhh…. smh. First of all this is a ripoff. Really 17.. 25? Second why da hell would you want a hardware key when you guy complain about them.. get out of here.